The Friends of Kinneil is a registered Scottish Charity. Charity Registration No: SCO38368

Report on activities 2019/20 Summary: 2019/20 was another busy, generally successful year for the Friends:

well-attended events the development of a more manageable and sustainable operating model

for Kinneil House visitor operations – with more open days and longer-term development potential – led by Historic Environment Scotland

a commitment by the bodies responsible for Kinneil to a new estate-wide feasibility study (though now being re-considered due to COVID-19)

profile-raising far and wide increasing donations, and a good revival in membership of the charity.

Some detailed highlights from the year are attached below. There were also continuing frustrations, challenges and setbacks to Kinneil Estate and Foreshore achieving the potential they deserve. However, these have sadly now been utterly over-shadowed in what was expected to be a busier 2020 season: the devastating effects of the global pandemic have stalled progress and adversely impacted so much of the country’s heritage and tourism sectors, and wider economy and society. We think of everyone who has suffered its consequences. Yet expansive historic parklands and local heritage have also shown, more than ever, their value and levels of community appreciation during the health restrictions. At the time of writing, the charity has had to suspend most of its events and activities. Being entirely run by volunteers, having no property and few substantial routine costs, we can freeze our operations and finances relatively easily compared with larger organisations. This means that as recovery approaches, the charity should remain in a sound position to resume activity; but we are apprehensive about the lasting impact on recent momentum, on some of the larger partner organisations we work with, and consequently on Kinneil’s future. Leisure and tourism will be a vital part of the recovery. Communities will need public investment, resources, leadership, help and support to boost this. Given the estate’s scale, potential, and outstanding heritage significance, Kinneil and the 15,000 or so people of Bo'ness should surely now be even more a priority for a fairer share of funding within this sector, compared with already-favoured and sometimes (arguably) lesser sites – some apparently almost overwhelmed with more visitors than they actually want or can manage. We shall continue to make the case for Kinneil to be properly developed. Many comparable sites would have their own paid staff team covering many of the things we do, with a modernised revenue-generating visitor offer to subsidise the operation, and to support jobs and the local economy. The Friends’ voluntary efforts continue to demand disproportionate, substantial time and personal sacrifices from our office-bearers and members. Once again I thank all the Management Committee and other volunteers for their unstinting and dedicated help, support and enthusiasm; and also all those we work with to improve Kinneil. We hope all stay safe and well through winter and into an uncertain 2021.

Some of the year’s activities:

Kinneil House Open Days Historic Environment Scotland (HES), supported by our volunteers in the House, and Falkirk Community Trust in the Museum, ran 12 free open days in 2019, compared with 8 in 2018, although still well short of its potential and of other sites of similar scale/significance. For the first time, the House was opened to co-incide with other major events in the park, specifically the Scottish Performance Car Show in June and Bo’ness Revival Hill Climb motor racing event at the beginning of September; and also during the nationwide Historic Scotland St Andrew’s free open weekend at the end of November. For most of the openings, HES also adopted their mandatory online booking system, which helped to manage the flow of visitors on guided tours, although also not without problems. Tours provided both by HES staff and our own volunteers were popular and well-received, leading to continuing good feedback on social media and on review sites such as TripAdvisor, and our tours also generated significant donations to the charity in return.

“We are really pleased to have secured additional staffing to enable more open days. We recently invested in opening up new areas of the House to the public and we’re keen to continue improving the visitor experience and increasing access to the House in future.”

Historic Environment Scotland, August 2019

“Was lucky to be able to explore the buildings on an open day. Fabulous guide, very

informative, friendly, enthusiastic and nothing too much trouble.”

Reviewer on TripAdvisor, April 2019

At the open day on 25th August, the Bicentenary of James Watt’s death, Falkirk Community Trust’s ‘Great Places’ heritage team also ran a free family ‘Watt A Day!’ event in the park, with activities themed on the great engineer and inventor. At the 14th September open day, during the Trust’s ‘Big Roman Week’, Roman-themed activities were also laid on, this year provided by the ‘Re-Discovering the Antonine Wall’ project team. The Friends also supported some of the other Big Roman Week events.

Friends volunteer Yvonne McBlain giving guided tour

‘4 on the Foreshore’ Fun Run 2019 There was a great community atmosphere, even under cool grey skies, at our Foreshore Fun Run last June. Fair Queen Zoe fired the starting gun – under the watchful eye of Peter Mole, Chair of our Foreshore Group, who did so much with Rob Storey and his team at Bo'ness Chiropractic & Sports Massage, and many others, to make the event possible. Congratulations were due to the prize-winners, to all the nearly 150 adults & juniors who completed the course. Thanks again to all the organisers, helpers & supporters.

Keen anticipation before the start of the Fun Run

Social events Our 10th annual James Watt Supper in January 2020 was a sell-out – thanks to Friends, guests, speakers, musicians and our brilliant volunteers who worked so hard. Guest speakers, Jenifer Harley, Chair of the Federation of Writers (Scotland) and fellow poets, Jean Taylor and Janet Crawford, gave readings from the inspiring poetry anthology ‘Horsepower’, compiled for the 2019 Watt Bicentenary year - among which were two poems about Kinneil.

Watt a night

We had also hosted a special social and membership recruitment event at the end of October. Billed as a ‘free evening of drinks, nibbles, fun & a dash of history’, we had good feedback and a boost in new membership following this successful, enjoyable occasion.

Boosting membership and volunteering One of the main objectives of the Management Committee is to revive membership numbers and recruit new volunteers, without whom none of our activities would be possible. Following agreement at last year’s AGM on reduced subscription levels to just £3 for an individual membership, and £5 for couples/families, we supported the CVS local volunteering fair in Bo’ness Town Hall in August by running a stall. The initial membership drive succeeded in leading to a positive revival in membership numbers, which have now significantly increased from around 50 to over 80. New members Jane Hogg and Gordon Clark have also been welcome new recruits to the Committee. We shall aim to keep recruiting once normal activities resume – details of how to join are here. Kinneil Estate feasibility study and walled garden consultation Following pressure from the Friends about the lack of progress towards the main pillar of the Kinneil Masterplan 2015-25 – namely development of Kinneil House as a visitor attraction – a high-level workshop between Falkirk Council, Falkirk Community Trust, HES and the Friends was held in Kinneil Museum in October. The public bodies agreed to commission in 2020/21 a further joint estate-wide feasibility study, recognising new circumstances since the previous 2014 study – including significant local tourism growth, the new opportunity of the vacant walled garden (see below), and changes in building conservation attitudes. At the time of writing, however, this project now disappointingly appears to be being re-considered because of the pandemic. In Spring 2019, Falkirk Council closed their bedding plant nursery operation in Kinneil walled garden. This prompted a review of the future opportunities for this prime horticultural and heritage space. The Council held a public consultation in November – to which we contributed very detailed comments and suggestions – followed by publication of the consultation findings in February and then a drop-in workshop session this March. We understand that discussions continue behind the scenes, and await news on the outcomes.

Map by John Adair, 1684, clearly showing walled garden – Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of

Scotland under the CC BY 4.0 licence]

Enhancements to Kinneil Estate – ‘Hidden Heritage’ & more Falkirk Community Trust led plans with a group of volunteers to develop a new ‘Hidden Heritage’ discovery/play trail around the estate. Consultation sessions were held in Bo’ness Library and in Kinneil Museum, with online surveys as well. Tesco customers in Bo'ness and Linlithgow voted in store to support the Friends, and helped get £2,000 of funding from the ‘Bags of Help’ scheme, as part of the Trust’s overall funding (mainly from LEADER) for this

project phase of around £20k, to help deliver interpretation relating to the history of the estate. This initial stage will deliver interpretation panels at five stages of the trail, and detailed designs for more extensive installations and play equipment along its length. The Trust hopes to continue fundraising in 2020/21 to complete the plans. Meanwhile another outcome of the project and of the volunteers’ efforts was an online trail guide, recently launched as part of the wide-ranging new Falkirk Explored smartphone ‘app’.

Outline design and consultation plans for Kinneil's 'Hidden Heritage' trail

The same volunteers also co-operated on the artist's brief for a new Roman-themed entrance sculpture at Kinneil Estate, being created by the ‘Rediscovering the Antonine Wall’ project. This was the subject of a design competition and community consultation.

Recently-installed sculpture based on Kinneil's Roman harness strap relic [photo credit: Gordon Clark]

The Friends also worked with the Trust on a successful bid to the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative (IFLI) Management & Maintenance Fund for £3,000 for additional tree-felling works to open up the viewpoint at the IFLI ‘Beacon’ near to Kinneil Kirk. The works themselves have been delayed due to the pandemic. In January, the charity ‘Froglife’ created two additional ponds in the estate to support amphibians, as well as one at the Foreshore. An attractive wildflower area was also created near the Roman fortlet, to enhance habitat connectivity for wildlife.

Last July, it was good to see the Kinneil Bike Trails group officially launch their trails in Kinneil Woods. Earlier this year, they held an event to look at future development ideas. Also last July, the Kinneil orchard planted with local primary schools in 2016 was extensively vandalised, with nearly half the trees snapped off just as they were beginning to mature. This depressing story made the front page of the Bo’ness Journal. Following swift remedial action by the Friends and Falkirk Parks, most of the broken stumps were treated and saved, and this year have thankfully started to re-sprout.

Hopeful signs of recovery – Kinneil's orchard

New Linlithgow-Bo’ness walking route We helped to support the development and launch by Inner Forth Futures of a new ‘Wanderings and Windings’ trail circuit between Bo’ness and Linlithgow, which includes Kinneil and other local points of interest along its route. Demonstrating social and community value – Kinneil case study We collaborated with a very interesting research project by Elizabeth Robson, of Stirling University, entitled ‘Wrestling with social value: an examination of methods and approaches for assessing social value in heritage management and conservation’. Sponsored by HES, her project selected Kinneil House and Estate as one of its case studies, with research conducted over ten months. The final report, to be published soon, amply demonstrates the exceptional complexity and degree of social and community value associated with Kinneil. This will inform overall assessments of the site’s significance and, in our opinion, should also help to justify higher investment priorities. Profile-raising We have continued to build upon the social media presence developed so effectively in previous years. Our posts on Facebook and Twitter receive much positive feedback and recognition, including well beyond the local area. The Friends’ Facebook page has over 2,000 followers, with over 1,700 on Twitter. We now hope to grow an Instagram presence. Engaging talks about aspects of the 2,000 years of history of Kinneil can be offered to historical societies and other groups across the country. These often generate welcome donations to the charity’s funds and can lead to follow-up group visits to Kinneil. During 2019/20, talks were given for Falkirk Local History Week (Larbert Library); Bo’ness Town Trust Association; Carriden Afternoon Club; Colinton Local History Society in Edinburgh; the

Rotary Club of Linlithgow & Bo’ness; Kirkcaldy Civic Society; Stirling’s National Trust for Scotland Members’ Centre; and the Bo’ness 50+ Group at the Recreation Centre. We helped to host special tours at Kinneil for the Bo’ness Beaver Group; Kirkcaldy Civic Society; Greenspace Scotland; TCV (The Conservation Volunteers) Scotland; CLEAR Buckhaven group; Building Limes Forum conference delegates; the Senior Curator of British Art, National Galleries of Scotland; the organiser of the James Watt 2019 Bicentenary commemorations in Birmingham; Froglife workshop delegates; the 85th Greenock & District Scout Group; as well as local politicians. Year of James Watt 2019 The Friends were prime movers within both Scottish and UK-wide commemorations to mark both the 250th anniversary of James Watt’s revolutionary patent in January 1769 for the condensing engine (secretly developed together with Dr John Roebuck at Kinneil House), and the Bicentenary of Watt’s death in Birmingham in August 1819. Much of the publicity for the year was done from Bo’ness. Previous Chair/Vice-Chair, Adrian Mahoney, gave professional PR consultancy to HES and the national steering group, to support the Scottish year of events and run the excellent associated jameswatt.scot web site; whilst the Friends voluntarily provided complementary support on Twitter, reaching a following of over 2,000. Kinneil was therefore among various sites with a James Watt connection, to benefit from being projected onto a nationwide stage, together with the fascinating story of his engine’s development. It also featured in several events, exhibitions and media coverage throughout the year. Historic Environment Scotland and Adrian concluded the year with a superb film evening at the Bo’ness Hippodrome this January, which the Friends also supported.

Echoes of 1769, 250 years later - Kinneil and the story of James Watt featuring in UK-wide publicity

Year-round As ever, a substantial amount of time also continued to be taken up by monthly committee meetings, sub-group meetings, meetings with other local contacts, extensive correspondence, finance and administration.

Ian Shearer (Chairman) August 2020